Walt Disney Silly Symphonies - Landmark LP Release Countdown

My good pal Jesse over at The Mousepod (a great podcast I still miss very much) has been hosting a fascinating, and FUN, countdown to an important new release of an incredible 16 LP boxed set of all the music tracks from the Walt Disney Silly Symphonies (1929-39) comprising 75 shorts. Jesse had a firm hand in the creation of this magnificent set and I am thrilled for him, this is a dream come true. He is also the Producer/President/Owner of LA's Fine. Do go to Jesse's blog and scroll back through the countdown and watch some of these incredible films. I will post links to a few of my favorites down at the bottom of this post.

The Silly Symphony Collection will be an incredible item to own and will soon be available for pre-order for $399.98. LP only release with a code for a digital download (YAY, for ye olde iPod), preorders will also get an EP of The Skeleton Dance and The Three Little Pigs on the flipside (SWEET).

Shiny! Pretty!

Produced from 1929-1939, the Silly Symphony shorts were landmarks in animation, winning Oscar after Oscar (7 in total, pretty impressive) for their creative use of story, art and emotion through music. The technical advances in the art and production of animation that made Disney truly great were formed in this series. It brought us the invention of the MultiPlane camera, which truly changed animation forever.

The MultiPlane Camera, still from The Reluctant Dragon (1941)

Walt Disney, himself, will explain the MultiPlane to you and me in this clip from Walt Disney Presents (The Wonderful World of Disney was a Sunday night regular for me growing up):

Pioneering in the use of Technicolor (two color in 1932), the Silly Symphony Flowers and Trees won Disney their first Academy Award for best animated short. The Old Mill (1937) received an Academy Award as the first short utilizing the MultiPlane. It's a gorgeous short and the MultiPlane created some incredible effects in Pinocchio, Dumbo, Bambi and Fantasia, to name just a few.

The importance of this landmark LP release cannot, and should not, be underestimated if you ask me. Here are the details from the website linked above.

The Silly Symphony Collection is a first-of-its-kind box set from Walt Disney Records and Fairfax Classics featuring the complete restored soundtracks from all 75 Silly Symphony shorts from 1929-1939, with more than 8 hours of music over 16 vinyl LPs.

The limited edition collection is housed in 8 tip-on gate-fold jackets with original animation art in a beautifully constructed foil-stamped and numbered slipcase. Soundtracks of Disney classics such as The Skeleton Dance by Carl Stalling, Three Little Pigs by Frank Churchill, and Donald Duck’s debut The Wise Little Hen by Leigh Harline will be presented in full for the first time ever on record. Each gate-fold jacket includes detailed liner notes for every short by Disney historians J.B. Kaufman and Russell Merritt, authors of the definitive book on the series, Walt Disney’s Silly Symphonies: A
Companion to the Classic Cartoon Series.

Pre-order for the box set will begin at D23 EXPO: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event, August 14th through August 16th, 2015 in Anaheim, California, and will continue online at Disney Music Emporium on August 17th at 8:00 am PDT. Pre-orders will ship to arrive in time for the holidays.

The Silly Symphony Collection will include a free digital download with purchase of the box set and will retail for $399.98. Each guest who pre-orders The Silly Symphony Collection will receive a free limited edition 10” vinyl single featuring “The Skeleton Dance” on the A side and “Three Little Pigs” on the B side.

Since the set will debut for pre-order at the D23 convention (August 14-16th), I expect the following online sales starting on the 17th will be limited availability and brisk since the set purported to be a limited edition . I will bet, and I hope, this sells out! My advice is do not hesitate if you want this. I hope this has whetted your appetite as a Disney fan and, more importantly a music fan. Music has been with cinema from the very beginning, this is your chance to get an item that truly is, very very special.

Okay, now to see a few of the Silly Symphonies I love, here you go! Impossible to pick out of the 75 shorts, all have something to recommend them. If you need to see more, go visit youtube or search for the two Walt Disney Treasures Tins, Silly Symphonies and More Silly Symphonies. Long out of print, it will be hard to find a bargain. I hope Disney will see fit to release all the shorts on blu-ray, they deserve it!